The Rivers State Government has fixed its gaze on the Trans Amadi Industrial Layout in a renewed bid to revive the State’s manufacturing sector and create jobs for a steadily growing unemployment figure.
Trans Amadi Industrial Estate, which was once the industrial hub of the Old Rivers State, comprising present-day Bayelsa and Rivers States, had become a ghost of its former self, with over 70% of its former occupants having gone bankrupt or relocated to other States, such as Lagos.
Joseph Johnson, Commissioner of Commerce and Industry, at a seminar in Port Harcourt organised by the Rivers Entrepreneurs and Investors Forum (REIF), on Wednesday, said the situation had taken a huge toll on the State’s unemployment figures, adding that over 70% of the over 14Ggovernment-owned enterprises had either gone moribund or are on the verge of collapse.
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He told the gathering of entrepreneurs at the seminar, that the Siminalayi Fubara-led Administration is eager to have businesses return to the industrial estate, and in process boost employment generation.
Johnson reeled off government-owned enterprises that had gone under to include the Rivers State Vegetable Oil Company, Port Harcourt International Airport Hotel, West African Glass Industries (WAGI), Rivers State Songhai Farm, Fish Farm (Buguma), PABOD Breweries among others.
He said the State Government, through the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, is “as much as possible, trying to see how we can re-industrialise the State. Because if every sector is working very, very well, then the pressure that you find on certain sectors will not be there.
“Under my Ministry, there are more than 14 government-owned industries. Of them all, just about 30% are working,†he said.
Johnson stressed that, “this governor (Siminalayi Fubara) came prepared. If you have a copy of the 37-Page blueprint, you discover that he has a plan of industrializing the Trans-Amadi industrial area. Quite a number of the companies that we thought existed in Trans-Amadi are all moribund. A number of them are down -: West Africa Glass Industry, Rivers Vegetable Oil Company, others.â€
The commissioner said part of the Fubara administration’s effort to revive the State’s manufacturing sector, include the hosting of an economic summit, “where certain decisions were made. This was what gave birth to the Rivers State Investment Promotion Agency, an agency that is more like a one-stop centre.
“Beyond that, we had already provided a four billion Naira seed money for SMEs. It is a single digit loan that set the pace for the SMEs to be able to thrive in an economy where everything had gone down. The only businesses that thrived, in my opinion, were the governments. So, the Rivers State government has been grappling with trying to see how we can bring back a number of industries that are down. We have thrown our doors open.
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“What the Rivers State Investment Promotion Agency is doing is to see how we can get investors, both internationally, back to our state to be able to revive all the industries that it had to not function. And I must commend my dear brother, the DG of the Rivers State Investment Promotion Agency (Chamberlain Peterside) for what we are doing. I’m happy that we’re working hand in glove to ensure that investors come to take up even investments like the Port Harcourt International Airport,†he said.
